This artistic piece is a representation of the American common core education system and how it passes up on teaching children important life skills such as thinking creatively, negotiation, collaboration, and management. Instead our schools prioritize standardized testing to the detriment of students’ actual learning. 

The common core is a set of standards in mathematics and english language arts (ELA) that outline what a student should know and be able to do by the end of each grade (Common Core website). Currently it has been adopted by 41 states and the District of Columbia, as well as four territories. While emphasizing test prep, the common core focuses on meeting national standards.

The notion that American education is falling behind has been cemented in the mainstream school of thought since the 1970s (Capelli 2015). The Pew Research Center reported that only 29% of Americans rated their country’s STEM education as above average (DeSilver 2017). This notion is supported by data as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranked the U.S. 38th out of 71 countries in math and 24th in science and reading in 2017 (DeSilver 2017). The common core website reiterates this sentiment: “For years, the academic progress of our nation’s students has been stagnant, and we have lost ground to our international peers”. The Common Core’s solution to this problem is to implement national standards to define what knowledge and skills students should gain throughout their K-12 education. Knowing whether or not students meet these standards requires regular testing which can be used to not only evaluate students but their teachers and schools as well. The common core requires about 20 times more testing than the previous education program, No Child Left Behind (Krashen 2014). The goal of all this is to prepare students “to succeed in entry-level careers, introductory academic college courses, and workforce training programs”. 

However, while the common core may help in achieving higher test scores, it fails at preparing students in the variety of skills necessary to succeed in life. In his book “The Global Achievement Gap” education specialist Tony Wagner contends that rather than teaching children how to succeed in the real world, the common core system teaches them to think in a manner only applicable in specific jobs or situations. He argues that by continuing to use the common core, we are not preparing students to be fully functional workers, learners, and citizens.

Washington Post writer Valerie Strauss holds a similar viewpoint, arguing that subjects are tools to promote qualities of mind and attaching standards to them does students a disservice. Strauss goes on to argue that the standards attached to the common core produce standardized minds rather than students who are skilled at thinking for themselves. 

Examples from other countries also show that teaching to the test is not necessarily the best way to get results. In Singapore, the country that scored the highest on all three sections measured by PISA, the education system emphasizes hands-on learning. Singapore’s system also gives their teachers more freedom to research and affords more opportunities to develop teaching and leadership skills (Estrada 2019). 

Research done in 2006 also shows that increased testing does not help increase student achievement (Krashen 2014). When faced with decisions in real life, people are not presented with four options to choose from, two of which they can easily eliminate. Our education system should consider moving away from the common core so we can produce students who can think critically and do more than just spit out memorized answers.

Sources:

Wagner, T. (2010). The Global Achievement Gap: Why Even Our Best Schools Don’t Teach the New Survival Skills Our Children Need-And What We Can Do about It. Canada: ReadHowYouWant.com, Limited. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=mqlZleSjOzEC&oi=fnd&pg=PR1&dq=skills+promoted+by+the+american+education+system&ots=g08gxyBinE&sig=32zgF4bY2jJb-wxwzxpOWHyEjYw#v=onepage&q=skills%20promoted%20by%20the%20american%20education%20system&f=false

Cappelli, P. H. (2015). Skill Gaps, Skill Shortages, and Skill Mismatches: Evidence and Arguments for the United States. ILR Review, 68(2), 251–290. https://doi.org/10.1177/0019793914564961

DeSilver, Drew (2017). U.S. students’ academic achievement still lags that of their peers in many other countries. Pew Research Center, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/02/15/u-s-students-internationally-math-science/

Estrada, Mark (2019). In Singapore, good doesn’t stand in the way of better. The Holdsworth Center, https://holdsworthcenter.org/blog/lockhart-isd-superintendent-mark-estrada-singapore-learning-expedition/?gclid=Cj0KCQjwppSEBhCGARIsANIs4p4ER5OtbkD6q32nBhTPfmP58-csy9xI_xyxI6b8CQx-Mkbq8-kuzVwaAm6BEALw_wcB

“About the Standards.” Common Core State Standards Initiative About the Standards Comments, http://www.corestandards.org/about-the-standards/

Brady, Marion, and E. Hirsch Jr. “Eight problems with common core standards.” Valerie Strauss’“Answer Sheet,” Washington Post 21 (2012). https://www.marionbrady.com/articles/2012-WashingtonPost8-13.pdf

Krashen, Stephen. “Common core: Ignoring education’s real problems.” Talking Points 28, no. 1 (2014): 26-28. http://sdkrashen.com/content/articles/2014_krashen_the_common_core_ignoring.pdf